Long Lens Stabilization
/Such clear skies after our weekend rains! These images were taken during my morning walk from a spot just above "Goat Hill" near my home in San Francisco. In the third shot you can see not only the entire west span of the Bay Bridge but the top of the tower of the new east span as well. This was a good chance to practice "shooting on the exhale" and matching shutter speed to focal length since I didn't bring my tripod along on this excursion and I used a 300 mm equivalent lens. The shutter speed rule is to use the reciprocal of the full frame equivalent focal length as the shutter speed. So in this case the reciprocal of the 300 mm lens is 1/300 so I set a shutter speed at or faster than that for the shot. Even with that it's a good idea to firmly anchor the camera/lens combo with your other hand by placing your hand under the lens, palm side up and set your elbow into your chest to form a rigid triangle whose points are your face, hand and elbow. Then "shooting on the exhale" simply means to wait to press the shutter until the end of a long, gentle exhale. If you get in to the habit of taking these precautions, your telephoto shots should be much sharper than before. Click an image to enlarge.